Volkswagen scandal Bonn court announces harsh judgement
Bonn · The 19th civil division of a Bonn court calls the VW exhaust fumes scandal a malicious deceit and concedes a return transaction to a car buyer.
A Bonn judge has used particularly harsh words addressing Volkswagen. 'Malicious deceit' in connection with the exhaust fumes scandal is mentioned and 'dubious business practice'. In short, the 19th civil division in Bonn left no room for doubt in regard to the decision against Volkswagen and a local car dealership: A car buyer who trustfully thought he was buying an environmentally friendly car until he found out about the actual emissions will be allowed to use his right for a return transaction.
Court judge Roland Zickler made clear: The courts decision also affects ten other plaintiffs who called the 19th civil division for help.
The judge did not accept the behavior of the car seller and Volkswagen. The buyer and his wife had chosen an environmentally friendly car by picking an allegedly low-emission Audi Diesel in 2014. It was through media reports that they found out there was something wrong with the emissions, and only after doing their research they realised that their car was affected by the emissions scandal. The husband took a local car dealer and the Volkswagen group to court to obtain a return transaction.
Judge Roland Zickler was critical of Volkswagen and also the German legal system: Many cases would be decided with different outcomes and could not be tried efficiently because class-action lawsuits are not possible in Germany.
„It is unbearable for the citizen to experience such a fragmented law, and that it is rather a question of luck which court one ends up in“, he complained. As long as there is no jurisprudence of a supreme court, these cases are like a „drive in the fog“.
Other legal systems are superior to the German, said the judge. Thus VW paid 15 billion in the United States to keep away lawsuits.
The 19th civil division said: The car dealer has to take the car back minus a user fee as it is considered a defect if a delivered car needs to be repaired.
The court rated the two-mode-practice of the emission software as particularly questionable: The car „notices“ when it is in „check mode“, and allows emissions 40 times the allowed amount when in normal traffic. That the car dealer did not know about this is his bad luck, according to the court. He was supposed to hand over a car free of defects. To just install an update for seven euro was not deemed as sufficient. If that had been done right away, Volkswagen would have avoided a lot of trouble. The court wanted to spare the buyer a second odyssey. Why two different modes?, asked the court and ruled: „The one who committed the malicious deceit has no right to be trusted a second time.“
The court was in no doubt that VW was irresponsible: „VW programmed cars to exceed allowed amounts by many times. And so two-and-a-half million cars are blowing multiple amounts of nitrogen oxides into the air, despite not being licensed to do so.“ It seems as if that was the only way to conquer the US market. It backfired and cost Volkswagen a lot of money. „Another decision could contra bonos moros (against good morals)", said judge Zickler. „But that is extremely harsh.“
Should the parties not agree beforehand, which is not expected, the civil decision will render the judgement in July.
File number: LG Bonn 19 O 76/16
Original text: Rita KleinTranslation: Mareike Graepel
